


The Doctor is In

by dark_roast



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-19
Updated: 2008-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-10 14:32:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dark_roast/pseuds/dark_roast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS: through the beginning of Season Three</p><p>This fic was written for the Blind-Item Prompts Challenge at <b><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/spn_thur_nights/">spn_thur_nights</a></b>. I picked two random numbers and one random letter from a list visible only to the mod. I was assigned two characters, and one prompt. Having picked prompts 3, 18, and F -- I was required to write a fic featuring Ash, Ben Braeden and holy water.  This story also features the other kids from 3x02 "The Kids are Alright" (Ryan Humphrey, Katie and Dakota).</p><p>The kids from Morning Hill don't want any more monsters in their neighborhood, and they decide to do something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doctor is In

As Katie touched the match to each candle in the circle, the deep end of the empty swimming pool filled with a weird mixture of smells.

"What _is_ that?" Ryan demanded.

"Green tea melon," Katie said.

Ryan pinched his nose shut, scrunching up his face in disgust. “It's foul.”

Ryan liked Katie. Ben knew he did. Ryan hadn't told Ben, because Ryan would never tell Ben something like that, but it was totally obvious anyway. It was also obvious to Ben that Ryan wouldn't get anywhere with Katie. Not like that. Chicks didn't like it when a guy got all macho and confrontational. You had to be smooth. Show you were sensitive on the inside. But, whatever. Winning Katie over was Ryan's problem, not Ben's.

"You never told us what kind of candles to bring," Katie said.

"You could've brought all the same smell."

"I didn't have a big choice at my house," Katie snapped back. "Why don't you go to Walmart, and shoplift some for us?"

Ryan scowled, but he didn’t say anything. He went back to dribbling a wide circle of holy water on the cement, around where they'd made the inner ring of candles.

“Watch where you’re going,” Katie said. “I don’t want a wet butt.”

“Hope your mommy changed your diaper, then."

“Get a room,” Ben said.

Ryan and Katie both glared at him.

Dakota said, "The book says our psychic energy is supposed to be _harmonious_.”

“I’m harmonious,” Ben said.

"That book is stupid." Ryan poked the big red hardback with the toe of his sneaker like he didn't dare kick it. Not because it was a book borrowed from the adult section, but because it was a book about magic.

They'd talked about getting the holy water the way the Frog Brothers had done it in _Lost Boys_ \-- charging into church and dunking their canteens in the baptismal font. But, they were already pushing it by sneaking out at night. If anybody’s mom found out they were meeting at the house on Sylvan Street where they’d been caged up by the creepy real estate lady, they’d get grounded until they were forty.

The real estate company still hadn’t sold the house. It stood empty and dark at the top of the hill, set apart from the other houses on the street, lonely and creepy, and perfect for monsters to show up and party all night. The grownups wouldn’t understand. They were already forgetting. Ben’s mom seemed to be the only one who remembered the changelings. She kept her mouth shut, though. Just nodded sadly when the other moms started talking about a child molester high on angel dust -- which Ben guessed must be something bad, unlike other things about angels.

Dakota had suggested they be stealthy. Ben had scrounged a couple of travel bottles out of his mom’s overnight kit and carried them to church in the pockets of his dress-up pants. Morning Hill Presbyterian had been packed, like every Sunday since the changelings. He usually only got dragged to church on Christmas and Easter. Now it was every week.

Halfway through Mrs. Berti talking about Jesus washing the leopards, Ben raised his hand and asked to go to the boy’s room. When he got upstairs to the narthex, Katie was already there, standing on tiptoe over the baptismal font, holding an Arrowhead bottle under the water. She still looked pale and tired; her dark eyes were huge and circled by purple shadows. Ben gave her the high sign, and she gave him a small smile in return.

Katie screwed the cap on her water bottle, wedged into her little purse, and walked back downstairs, her Mary-Janes noiseless on the thick carpeting. Ben filled up both his bottles while Reverend Gunderson droned something and the congregation droned right back, “Aaaaaahh-aaaaa-mennnnnn…” over and over. Snnnnorrrrrrre. Cheese and rice! He'd never complain about Mrs. Berti again. Maybe not. Okay, fine. He’d probably complain about her on the car ride home. Ben wiped the wet bottles on the tail of his jacket, and slipped them back in his pockets.

Easy-peasie. They didn’t have to wait for another Sunday to get more water. Even Ryan brought holy water, and they had plenty. Between that and the salt and the candles, they’d be ultra-super-protected. Which was good, since their spiritual energy wasn’t heading anywhere near harmonious.

Ryan finished pouring out the holy water, shaking the last drops out of Katie’s Arrowhead bottle. He stomped back and sat down beside Dakota. "How are we supposed to summon anything when it stinks like my grandma's bathroom?"

"It smells good," Dakota said. She sat right across the circle from Ben. The wavering flames picked out golden glints in her long, light-brown hair. She pointed to each candle in turn. "Vanilla and lavender and green tea melon and... and… the red one."

"Patchouli," said Katie.

"I think a protective spirit will really like it," Dakota added.

Ryan curled his lip at her. "We don't want some stupid froofy girly spirit in a floaty white dress." He turned to Ben. "You said more bad things would show up, if we didn’t do something to stop them."

Ben shook his head. "Dean said maybe. He told me sometimes a place gets rubbed thin and more bad things can come through. _Maybe_."

"Just in case," Ryan insisted, "we need somebody like Dean or Sam to protect us.” He slapped both hands on the concrete bottom of the pool. "This isn't going work. It smells gross."

Ever since Ben had kicked Ryan in the nads, Ryan had stopped bullying Ben, but that only made Ryan Humphrey about one third less of a douche. Douche or not, though -- this time Ben agreed with him.

"It _is_ kinda gross," Ben admitted.

"See? Braeden agrees with me. Thank you, Braeden."

"That doesn't make you right," Katie said snippily.

"It does if we need somebody badass."

"We need somebody _smart_," Dakota said. "Like a doctor."

“Let’s just do this,” Ben told them. “It’s getting late.”

The four of them linked hands. Ben spoke the words he’d memorized from the book, imagining the nested circles of candles, of kids, of salt and of holy water, all surrounded by a bigger circle of white light. But, when he reached the end of the chanting, nothing happened. No spirits appeared. Stupid, froofy, girly, or otherwise.

"Told you it wouldn't work," Ryan muttered.

The sudden crunch of footsteps on the loose dirt and gravel made them all freeze.

"Oh shit!" Ryan hissed.

Dakota gasped -- either from fear or because Ryan had said an Extremely Bad Word. Ryan scrambled up, knocking over a candle with his boot. Green tea melon went rolling toward the deep end of the empty pool, and whiffed out, sending up a last curl of white smoke. Ryan stood indecisively, his fists balled. Ben and the girls didn’t move. Katie and Dakota were wide-eyed with terror, but Ben leaned back, bracing himself on his hands. Why bother running? There wasn’t any place to hide. They were hosed.

The footsteps stopped at the cement lip of the pool. A grown-up peered down at them. Right away, Ben knew this guy didn’t live in Morning Hill. He wasn’t anybody’s parent or teacher, and he didn’t work anywhere nearby. He wore a denim vest with the sleeves torn off, over a flannel shirt, raggedy jeans, and heavy work boots. His hair was blond, cut short in the front, but the back part dangled past his shoulders. He reminded Ben of Dean in a way that Ben couldn’t put his finger on. Maybe in the same way that Ben had looked at Dean and knew right away he belonged someplace else.

"Hey there," said the guy. “Up kinda late, aren’t you?”

"We're leaving now.” Katie rose to her feet, her thin legs shaking. “Please don't tell my mom. We thought nobody lived here."

The blond guy scratched his ear. “Technically, I don’t live anywhere.”

“Are you a vagrant?” Dakota asked him.

He blinked slowly at her, looking both amused and impressed. “No, Little Miss Loquacious, I am not a vagrant. I am a discorporate consciousness ejected from my mortal form in the wake of a violent demise.”

Dakota stared at him, clearly stumped.

“Are you stoned?” Ryan asked.

“Sadly, no.”

The light bulb clicked on in Ben’s head. “Are you here to protect us?”

“You called, I answered.” The guy hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. "I'm Ash."

“Cool,” said Ben. Then he remembered his manners. “I’m Ben. This is Dakota and Katie. And that’s Ryan.”

“Pleased to meet all of you.”

“Some terrible things happened here,” Ben said to him. “People died. We need somebody to watch this house, and protect us and all of our families and make sure nothing bad ever happens again.”

“Somebody smart,” Dakota added.

Ash shook back his hair. “I went to M.I.T.”

Dakota and Katie exchanged looks.

“My dad applied to M.I.T.,” Katie said. “He didn’t get in.” She looked up at Ash. “Okay. That’s pretty smart, I guess.”

“Trust me,” Ash said. “If a sign or a portent pops up anywhere around here, I’ll be on it like stink on… well, you know what. I’ll find it. And truth be told, it’s nice to have something to do for a change. Being dead is kinda boring.”

“Are you badass?” Ryan wanted to know. “That’s the most important thing.”

“They call me _Doctor_ Badass.”

Katie raised her eyebrows slightly. “Do we have to call you that?”

“Yeah,” Ash replied. “You gotta chant it nine times by the dark of the moon, and don’t forget to bring me a virgin sacrifice every damn time, or you'll feel my ghostly wrath.”

Ben eyed him. “Really.”

“Nah. Just holler. I’ll be around.” Ash flickered and vanished.

Katie jumped. Even Ben flinched. Ash hadn’t looked ghostly or transparent, standing at the edge of the pool. He’d looked like a real, solid person.

“Wait!” Ben cried.

Ash reappeared. “What, already?”

“I just wanted to say thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Ash said. “Now get on home. I got watching and protecting to do.”

He disappeared again. Katie blew out the candles. The smell of smoke quickly covered the mingled stinks of vanilla, lavender and patchouli. Ryan worked his way around the circle, scuffing away the salt with his feet. Ben stood looking up at the little he could see of the yard and the house from where he stood in the pool, his hands tucked in the pockets of his leather jacket. Maybe it was his imagination, but the place didn’t feel so lonely or creepy anymore.

Dakota said from behind him, “Somebody’s going to buy this house soon.”

Ben turned around, surprised that she’d echoed what he was thinking.

“Dean would be proud of you,” she added shyly.

Ben grinned. “He’d be proud of all of us.”

***


End file.
